Roma Aeterna
by TheCataphract
Summary: In the sixth century, Eastern Roman general Flavius Belisarius found himself in a position occupied by the great Roman commanders who came before him. He had the loyalty of his Legions, popularity among the people, and an unpopular Emperor on the throne. Belisarius took his chance, seizing power and reforging the Roman Empire to stand against the world, and before long, the Galaxy.
1. Introduction

**Roma Aeterna**

 _Mass Effect AU_

Introduction:

 _"Ah Flavius Belisarius. Reclaimer of the Empire, conqueror of the Barbarian kings, Restorer of the Legions, the greatest commander since Gaius Julius Caesar, greater even than Alexander the Great himself._

 _Fifty four years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, you found yourself at a vital crossroads. In true keeping to the finest traditions of the great Roman conquerors of old you had recovered North Africa from the would be Vandalic 'kings' and retaken Italia herself with blood and iron. You, great savior of the Empire, had recovered the Eternal City herself from the filthy Gothic usurpers, and ruthlessly driven the traitorous turncoats from our home. YOU Flavius Belisarius won the absolute loyalty of the liberated people of Rome, and as tales of your accomplishments and the feats of military prowess by your Legions spread through the world, the first rumblings of a revolution began to make themselves known._

 _Of course the weakling Emperor Justinian was no fool. He realized your power was growing to eclipse his own. That at a word all the Empire would rally to your banner. He recalled you to Constantinople to stop you before it was too late. He thought you weak willed, obedient, and foolishly loyal. He could not have been more wrong._

 _You, Flavius Belisarius, Scourge of the unworthy Emperors, refused, and your word was given. A revolution the likes of which had never before been seen swept across the Roman world._

 _To Rome volunteers of all walks of life, from all corners of the old empires, of all classes from Patrician to Plebeian to free men to slaves, even women and peoples from outside the Empire rallied to your banner. They rallied to Rome, and they rallied to save their realm. They rallied to YOU, Flavius Belisarius because they knew in their hearts, in their very souls that you would reforge the Empire to once again stand unconquered against the world, marching to bring to heel all those who dared look upon our success with envious eyes. They knew beyond all doubt that YOU, great restorer of what it means to be Roman, would cleanse the rot of decadence and corruption that drained the mighty and brave people of Rome of their resolve and their strength in the face of the barbarian hordes. That YOU Belisarius the Wise would combine the unchallenged strength of the old Empire of the old Pax Romana with the hard learned lessons of the divided Empires and the near forgotten virtues of the Republic to create a new empire, one of cold steel and strong people to replace the crumbling empire of useless gold, silver, and cowardly men._

 _In the face of this, in the face of a Roman people that for the first time in CENTURIES found themselves once again full of vigor and unity of purpose and with a goal to strive for. In the face of the might of the newly restored Legions, against every living soul of the Empire, what chance did The cowardly, decadent, and unforgivably vain Justinian truly have?_

 _Justinian fell. His mercenary armies fell against the unbreakable discipline of the Legions, and the whole of Constantinople, the Jewel of the East rose up to bring the disgrace of an emperor to be judged against your boundless might and unparalleled virtue and found wanting. You Belisarius, paragon of all that it is to be Roman, found yourself being pleaded, no, implored to take up the mantle of Emperor unchallenged of the People of Rome and all her holdings, and you, most dutiful of us all, obliged. You took leadership as all great Roman heroes in the vein of the indomitable Horatius and the virtuous Cincinnatus not for greed or personal ambition. You took command because it was your duty as Roman and as a citizen to do everything in your vast and unparalleled abilities to see Rome great again._

 _Great does not begin to cover the scale of your successes._

 _You, Flavius Belisarius, founder of the greatest line of emperors ever seen, marshaled the strength of all those with stout hearts and strong spirits, be they of Roman blood or foreign descent, or be they even man or woman, and turned all their efforts to retooling our forges to war production, exchanging our gold and jewelry for the sword and shield, our race horses for steeds of battle, our silk clothes and exotic hats for the coat of mail and steel helmet of the legionnaires. You taught the WORLD that to be Roman is to defend the Empire, to BE the Empire. It is to extend the light of civilization to all who would fight and die to protect it, and to destroy those who would threaten it so thoroughly, so ruthlessly, and so completely that they can never become a threat again. It is to devote everything to the prosperity of the Empire, not to the individual, because when the Empire prospers, so do her people, but when the individual prospers, the rest are crushed, and the Empire left to whither and die. Yes Belisarius, shield of civilization, it is you from whom we relearned the meaning of the motto placed on our battle standards since the beginning of the Ancient Republic._

 _S.P.Q.R.: The Senate and the People of Rome. Not the Emperor of Rome, not the Merchants of Rome, not the men of Rome and not the God of Rome. The Empire stands, and the Legions march for the PEOPLE of Rome. For what are the true Legions but people of Rome, and as everyone from Carthage to Macedon, to the Gauls and even the Spartans themselves learned in the past. When all the people of Rome strike out for war. When the Eagles lead the Legions into battle, they conquer all against whom they march._

 _Thanks to you, Imperator, they marched on the World and now, Flavius Belisarius, five centuries after you delivered us from our doom;_

 _We march on the stars."_

 _-_ Titus Loreius Audaios,

Legate, Legio V Victrix,

Before leading his legion into their transports to join the first fleet sent to colonize Mars.

 **A/N: So it begins.**

 **So as you've probably guessed, this is another alternate history story about the Roman Empire surviving its fall and coming to rule the world and beyond. However, let me tell you what this is _NOT._**

 **This is not simply an insertion of the Roman Empire as we know it into the Mass Effect setting.**

 **What this is, however, is an speculation on what I personally believe would be the kind of Roman Empire that might have had a chance to not only survive its demise, but go on to unite the human race under its banner and thrive well into the future. Along with an exploration of what the human race would look like after being united under an empire like Rome (which tends to Romanize other cultures, in layman's terms, take the parts they like of that culture, make them better, and then replace the rest with their own. Think cultural assimilation.) for well over two millenia before ever running into the wider galactic community.**

 **Plus, let's be honest, who _doesn't_ want to see the Legions duke it out with the Turians.**

 **On that note however. Another thing this will _not_ be is a HFY fic where humanity curbstomps everyone in their path. I'm going to do my best to make this an interesting, and well thought out story. Though in general, I'm going to flesh out certain elements of the Mass Effect universe and mess with the story a bit to portray everyone involved as what they should be. The Citadel Council is a governing body with some of the best leaders that each race can offer. The Salarians are going to be incredible scientists and spies, the Asari are going to be ridiculously highly experienced and well trained commandos, negotiators, and diplomats, if somewhat stagnant, and the Turians are going to be a highly disciplined, professional fighting force with soldiers who have been training the better part of their lives to be the best there are, and have proven themselves in all out galactic war.**

 **Conversely, Humanity in this situation is not at all going to be the fractitious, inexperienced newcomer either. You will see more in the coming chapters, but this is an Empire that for longer than any other single civilization in human history, and from almost the very beginning of its existence, has never bowed to anyone, never acquiesced to the demands of a foreign power, and is used to being the biggest, baddest, most powerful entity in the world and it will show.**

 **As for how big of a deviation from canon and the original plot this will be; it depends on how the story develops. The general plan right now that I have outlined is to use canon as a guide to keep us on track and avoid making it unrecognizable when compared to the regular plot, but not be afraid to deviate and change the Mass Effect universe in considerable ways.**

 **Anyways, I hope you enjoy this. I am certainly open to suggestions and questions. In fact PLEASE send me suggestions. The more ideas I have to work with, the better the finished product is going to be. However keep in mind that I might not answer some due to spoilers, and the fact that I am trying to avoid the trap of spoon feeding you all of this new setting with a handful of codex entries for you to dig through before you can actually get to the story. I will try to present it all within the story itself, and if I make a codex at all, it will completely separate from the story itself, and only reference what has already been revealed in the story itself.**

 **Please let me know if I make any major errors so I can fix them if they need to be fixed. I'll rewrite if I need to on occasion, I just want to make the best story I can.**


	2. Chapter 1

_**(Short note before we begin. Numbers of ships and people on all sides will be significantly increased, as Mass Effect's canon felt rather small scale in comparison to what Earth alone is capable of, let alone an entire galaxy.)**_

 _ **Edit: Changed a few details to match up with the next chapter and to better reflect the kind of scale I am trying for.**_

 _ **I: Command**_

 _'There's a sight to behold'_ Caelia Attius Aleria mused to herself as she gazed upon the newly completed Dreadnought that still sat in dry dock in the massive Imperial shipyards that lay in orbit in a massive ring above the planet Aedifex. The planet played host to the largest and most advanced ship production facilities in known space, utilizing the resources of the in-system gas giant and massive asteroid fields of the system to produce huge quantities of raw materials, fuel, and most importantly to her at the moment: Ships.

The Shipyards here were capable of producing hundreds of capital ships of all sizes in a single year while simultaneously turning out thousands of cargo vessels and corvettes, tens of thousands of fighters and shuttle craft, and tend to the maintenance of countless others. Of course that was assuming that enough crews and raw materials were available in constant supply. Most of the time it was running at barely a quarter of its potential at most, helping to meet the maintenance and refitting needs of the fleets both merchant and military along with producing any necessary replacement vessels along with the dozen or so equivalent installations that were spread throughout the core territories of the Terran Empire.

This shipyard had three years earlier been given the honor of designing and building the newest flagship of the legendary Emperor's own First Legion, officially known as Legio I Invicta, or Unconquered, which could trace its history back to the days of the Republic, and had a list of battle honors that filled entire volumes.

It was fitting that this Legion receive the first of the _Germanicus_ class Dreadnoughts. The ships were the warships ever produced by the Empire, reaching more than 2.5 kilometers in length, and boasted some of the most powerful weapons and armor ever fielded. It was built around a central hull, split in two, with the slightly larger and wider upper section sitting slightly forward of the smaller lower section. The heavy angled armor of the two sections protecting the fighter and shuttle launch tubes and recovery bays, with the hull sections themselves housing the ship's main armament: three spinally mounted magnetic cannons each capable of launching a massive metal slug at near relativistic speeds. Build on either side of the ship and reaching about two thirds of the way up to the front of the hull were a set of downward facing delta wing-like structures that played host to four of the seven massive engines that would serve as the ship's primary propulsion, the other four being mounted in an inverse delta formation on the primary hull itself. The ship, while massive and imposing with its blocky angled hull and a silhouette that brought to mind a massive bird of prey in a dive actually presented a relatively small forward and broadside profile for a ship its size, while simultaneously capable of bringing nearly its entire armament to bear on any opponent.

Many early ship designers argued that a spheroid shape would be most efficient for a military vessel. However it was soon found in simulations that the sphere configuration did not use its armor with any degree of efficiency, with only the very edges of the ship's profile having enough angling in its armor to deflect incoming fire, and only being able to bring a portion of its weapons to bear at any given time, as such, the current theme of dagger shaped vessels was born and manifested beautifully in the ship that now waited patiently in its berth for the ceremonial launching of the ship after which it would embark on its shakedown cruise and join the fleet component of the First Legion.

The plan at this time assuming all went well, was that these ships would become the flagships of each legion's fleet element, replacing the aging _Trajan_ class dreadnoughts that had served well for more than eighty years with numerous refits and upgrades along the way, but with the Imperial fleets moving to replace their mass effect cores with the new Mercury series drive cores as primary power sources and FTL drives along with advances in hull design and armor composition, they were becoming obsolete and would soon be relegated to the mothballed reserve fleets within the next year as the _Germanicus'_ sister ships were put into mass production at ten different shipyards.

The sound of the door to the small observation room opening behind her and a familiar set of footsteps approaching pulled Caelia back to reality as Marcus Rutilius Macenna, her mentor of six years, and more notably Emperor of the Terran Empire and all her people, stood beside her in silence for a moment as he stopped to appreciate for the moment the scene before them. The man stood much taller than her, dwarfing her own shorter than average stature by more than a head at just over two meters. The Emperor had taken her under his wing six years ago after she had managed to not only become the youngest in centuries to be accepted into the Imperial Command School after managing to distinguish herself during her first years of mandatory military service at the age of eighteen, but also become the youngest ever to graduate the school and achieve the rank of Tribune commanding an entire cohort of the Comitatenses at the age of twenty, and a year later, leading her five thousand troops to successfully defeat an opposing force outnumbering her own more than five to one in that years simulated campaigns.

After the Emperor himself took notice of her unprecedented rise through the ranks and her display of tactical genius and strategic aptitude and decided to take her under his direct tutelage, intending to mold Caelia into a capable ruler, and in time and with a tremendous amount of work, his successor should she earn it.

This was one of the greatest reasons the Empire had survived as long as it had and one of the greatest differences that set the old Roman Empire apart from the reforged empire post Belisarius the Great's reforms. No longer was the position of Emperor a hereditary one. There were no more dynasties. Instead the Emperor would either pick the most capable candidate from among military commanders and regional governors to succeed him as had been the case with Marcus himself, or he would pick a promising young candidate and train them to become their successor should they prove themselves worthy, as was the case with Caelia. It was not a truly foolproof system, but there were failsafes in place to remove the occasional failure if necessary. The citizens would never again accept a corrupt, inept, or foolish Emperor.

"Take care of that ship, Caelia," Marcus stated in his typically straightforward manner, breaking the silence after a few moments. She turned sharply towards the much older man. He appeared to be in his latter middle ages, still strong, but beginning to age with lines showing on his face and his hair dark brown hair beginning gray. He appeared no older than fifty six, however human lifespan had increased dramatically over the course of the last thousand years of development, and Marcus himself was already two hundred and forty five, and could reasonably expect to remain active for decades to come. Similarly Caelia was, even in her much younger age of twenty seven already showing signs of this herself, appearing to be no older than twenty two.

"What do you mean?" She questioned, a slight edge of apprehension slipping into her voice as she already had an idea of what he meant.

Marcus simply gave a rare smile, allowing his normally tightly controlled expression to relax slightly before responding. "You know exactly what I mean. You have learned as much as you can from me, and it is time you take your first real command, step out from my shadow, and gain real experience in becoming protector and leader that you will need to be even hope to become my successor." The Emperor placed his hand on her shoulder before continuing, "It is time for you to start proving not just to me, but to the people, that you are capable of leading them."

Caelia's eyes widened before she simply nodded, not able to find her voice. She was making the next step on the road to the title of Princeps. She allowed him to draw back a step, and they then clasped arms as he used his free hand to replace the old clasp holding the purple cape signifying her status as ward of the Emperor in place over her shoulders with a new one in the shape of a golden eagle, announcing her as Legate of the First Legion before handing her a sturdy paper scroll, the hard copy of her new orders.

"Caelia Attius Aleria," he began, releasing her arm and straightening back up into a commanding posture, "You will take command of Legio I Invicta and her fleet components effective immediately and begin a ten year tour to supervise the exploration, fortification and settlement of the Nova Achaia sector. Your legion will proceed from here aboard the _Germanicus_ to the Sol system to rendezvous with you legion, and proceed immediately to the Nova Achaia sector to begin your mission. Your objective is to see to the building of infrastructure and defenses on all suitable colony worlds, and to remain in control of this sector until the colonies are established and a sector government formed. After this is accomplished, you will remain in the sector to provide security until the tour is completed. Do you understand?"

Caelia stood tall, a determined glint in her eyes as she placed her right fist over her heart in salute. "Yes Imperator, it will be done." At his nod of acknowledgment she turned on her heel and marched from the room to her quarters to prepare.

Less than a half an hour later, Caelia stood at the head of the crew of the _Germanicus_ alongside Admiral Kastanie Drescher, a veteran fleet officer in her early middle age who would command the Legion's fleet in its day to day operations; and Senior Tribune Alexios Komnenos, another experienced soldier in his prime who would do the same for the ground forces. The officers and crew had already known about her appointment to command of the legion, and simply nodded in acknowledgement as she had taken her place at the front of the formation of more than a thousand crewmen and a full cohort of five thousand heavily armed legionnaires with no great ceremony. This was expected however. In the Empire, ceremonies and special honors came only you accomplished something, and not a minute before.

The crew stood at rigid attention as the moment finally came, and the Germanicus was finally launched from drydock as the initial automated tests were run to ensure everything was in place before the crew came aboard. Suddenly the green light lit up above the door of the massive hangar bay, signalling that the ship was in perfect working order. Caelia, now Legate Aleria, performed an about face and preparing her carefully honed command voice as she prepared to give her first orders as Legate.

"Formation," her voice projected throughout the hangar in the absence of any other noise, "Fall out and board your vessel." She smiled as the soldiers began filing off in perfect columns of two rows each to board the large shuttles that would bring them to their home for the next ten years before sighing slightly and turning towards her command staff, who still waited for her command to board a smaller shuttle themselves.

"I'm going to be honest with you all," she began looking from face to face among her senior staff, "I have trained for years now to do this and more, but I am going to need your experience and skill to make this work. I hope I can count on your support?" They all nodded seriously as they sized up their new legate before Admiral Drescher spoke up.

"Of course, Legate"

"Good," Caelia replied, smiling slightly, "I look forward to working with you all. Now lets go before they decide to leave us behind." With a small round of chuckles they boarded their shuttle, and followed the crew out to their ship.

Caelia ran her hands through her hair as she sat at her desk in her small room aboard the _Germanicus_ , leaning back from the computer terminal as she took a break from reading the many reports that came across her desk that day. It had been five years so far, and she and the First Legion had done well so far.

They had finished the infrastructure necessary for rapid and successful colonization on six different colony worlds so far, and had completed defensive fortresses and ground to orbit defense cannons on eight. These eight worlds were spread across the twenty five stars that had been designated to become a part of this sector to begin with while probes explored the stars further out from this Mass Relay for potential expansion of the sector in the decades to come as the sector core became more firmly established.

This was the general Imperial policy towards expansion in these days. Emperor Macenna had continued the policy of his forbear, which called for a steady but cautious expansion using the relay network as a sort of highway to new regions of space while expanding further and further from the relays themselves as the population in the new sector grew, especially with the new Mercury drive cores being brought into general use, allowing for travel farther and faster than ever before. This was checked though by ensuring that no new colonies of significant size were taken until a strong basic orbital defense network was complete, and military forces raised to protect the region. Already the Nova Achaia sector boasted a population in excess of two hundred million as settlers and retirees from the legions who had taken the option to have land granted to them in the new colonies moved in from all over Imperial space and while significant trade had yet to begin, Nova Achaia was poised to begin an economic boom within the next decade if all went well. As it stood, the First Legion was spread out among the colonies farther away from the Relay to bolster the garrisons of the colonies until the local Liminatei could be brought up to strength and more Comitatenses cohorts raised in order to defend the sector.

The modern Imperial military consisted of three major parts. First, there were the Liminatei, or the border guards. They consisted of varying numbers of lightly equipped and well trained infantry and a small local defense and anti piracy flotilla, along with orbital defense crewmen who consisted of conscripts who chose to serve their mandatory five years military service in their home planets' Liminatei rather than going the career military route and joining the Comitatenses, as well as being supplemented in times of emergency by veterans who had finished their service, but were still required to train with and maintain their basic equipment. These forces would form the first response to both military incursion and natural disaster, and serve as basic peacekeepers in their homes.

Second were the Comitatenses. These were cohorts of five thousand well trained and professional soldiers that formed the quick response forces of the Imperial military, using their exceptionally fast ships to deliver their troops to the threatened planet in a matter of hours to reinforce local forces and drive the threat off if possible, and when it was not. They would dig in deep to hold the line, making use of a vast array of defensive weaponry to hold the line both in space and on the ground until help can arrive.

Which leads to the third and most famous, though least numerous portion of the Imperial military machine. The Legions. The legions are the steel fist of the empire, comprised entirely of career soldiers drawn from the top two percent of all the troops available to the Empire. The modern legion consisted of fifty thousand ground troops and twenty five thousand ship crew and support staff totaling seventy five thousand souls. They recieved the best armor, weapons, and training available to the Empire and trained endlessly in order to be the very best at what they do. On the ground, the legions were highly mechanized, making use of main battle tanks, supporting artillery and air support and very disciplined mechanized infantry in infantry fighting vehicles to smash all that stand in their path. In space, Each legion fleet is centered around a massive dreadnaught ranging in size from two to two and a half kilometers long and escorted by five battlecruisers, two carriers, several cruisers and hundreds of destroyers and frigates protecting the multitude of transports carrying their ground forces into battle.

It was a good system, a great one even, that combined the legendary legions of the old empire with the lessons learned by the divided empires under siege, but it had not been tested in more than a millenia since the unification of Terra and while they trained diligently and prepared constantly, only time would tell if it was all worth it.

The young Legate was pulled out of her musings by an alert from her comms. "Go ahead," she commanded as she answered.

"Legate, the sector Consul sent an alert that the exploration flotilla send beyond Relay 314 has failed to check in. Nova Achaia has been placed on high alert, and the one hundred fifty seventh, three hundred thirteenth and four hundred and twentieth Comitatensis Cohorts are all scrambling to reinforce the colony in case of any possible attack."

That got her up and moving, putting her uniform back together with practiced efficiency as she dressed herself in her personal Lorica series armor set and began considering her own response. The exploration fleets did not miss a check in for any reason, it simply was not done, and in the event it was necessary, they would deploy a probe through the relay with a message explaining the situation before proceeding. For this to have happened meant something had happened, and while it was possible that it was nothing, she would not take that chance.

"Send the order to all of the legion to rendezvous on our position immediately, and send an alert to high command to the situation." She ordered as she fixed her last buckle, grabbed her helmet off the desk and placed her sidearm on her right thigh before rushing out the door and down the hall to the bridge.

"Yes Legate, the messages are sent and acknowledged." The communications officer reported just before the door opened and she entered the bridge. She considered her options while she waited for her officers to join her on comms. It would take several days to gather the First Legion, and likely at least a week before any real operations could begin on their end. It was worse if this became a major incursion, even through the Mass Relays as it takes a significant amount of time to prepare a single legion, let alone multiple legions, for a campaign of any length. More than likely, it would be a month before other legions could be brought to bear. She huffed in frustration. If there was an attack, the forces of Nova Achaia would just have to hold on their own until help could arrive.

 **So if you haven't already worked it out for yourself, Nova Achaia replaces Shanxi in this AU because while the Romans didn't really care about people's personal names so much, they tended to give places Roman or Latinized names, so calling it Shanxi just wouldn't make sense.**

 **In the next chapter, we break out of pure exposition, the First Contact war begins and I get to finally write these actions scenes that I've had swimming in my head for a while.**

 **As always, please let me know if I've messed something up or something doesn't make sense so that I can fix it. Thanks.**


	3. Chapter 2

**Thanks for all the reviews! I tried to reply to everyone that I could. Anyone who left a review I couldn't reply to; your replies will be at the end of the chapter.**

 **Since we are about to see a whole lot more Mass Effect content I suppose now is as good a time as any to state I own nothing derived directly from the Mass Effect universe and games, and I own only what is original to this story.**

 **Edit: Published before I had properly proofread and spellchecked, sorry, fixed it now. Let me know if I missed something please.**

 **II: Contact**

This had not been a good day for Guardsman Kovak. Not by any stretch of the imagination. He had been woken up by his screaming Centurion and the wailing alarms of the Castra signalling that everyone, and boy did they mean _everyone_ , was to scramble to combat readiness. Everyone from the rawest recruits just starting their mandatory service to the cooks and clerks were being armed and rushed out of their bunkers for deployment. Kovak himself had a set of the mass produced and relatively cheap _Hamata II_ type armor that really didn't fit him quite right and had very minimal shielding, but it would get the job done so long as he wasn't taking high powered rounds and didn't expose himself to sustained fire. The armor itself was very practical looking, dark gray armor plates over dark green uniform, with its armor plates providing protection over his torso, shoulders and shins with simple blocky plates of armor and plenty of webbing to hold spare ammunition. It was topped off by a sturdy helmet with a full face mask, leaving only a thin visor to see out of in case his external cameras got knocked out.

He was armed with the very standard issue _Gladius IV_ , an easy to produce and very reliable carbine with a forty five round magazine and, like all Imperial weapons, a pair of rotating heat sinks to cope with the inherent heat problem found in any weapon that uses the Mass Effect. While one thermal clip is cooling, the other is being used to allow a soldier to continue firing. The only factor that limited a soldier's rate of fire was how much ammunition he had and how quickly he could reload. The _Gladius_ was useful from short to medium ranges, though its accuracy suffered and anything beyond three hundred meters. That said, it had wonderful stopping power, a decent rate of fire, and wasn't too heavy, making it a perfect weapon for the Liminatei borderguards. He also carried a _Pugio III_ pistol, the current standard sidearm for all Imperial troops with twenty rounds in its magazine and both full and semi auto settings. All told, he and the rest of the Liminatei were well enough equipped to get the job done, even if they would really wish for the better equipment of the Comitatenses or the Legions.

Now, Kovak found himself riding into the outskirts only major City on Nova Achaia that straddled a good sized river that was probably a good one hundred fifty meters across and very deep. He was riding with the two of his century's fireteams in the back of a fast moving truck. They were one of the five vehicles carrying the one hundred men of the 27th Century to the downtown area of the city with its massive skyscrapers reaching up into the sky, many of which were still under construction to ensure that no civilians had been left behind in the evacuation to the shelters before moving out across the river to join the rest of their cohort to move out of the city to the northern front. There they would engage the enemy if they managed to land troops. Ideally they would be enough to push them off the planet, but if not, they would make a fighting retreat to buy as much time as they could for the Comitatenses to dig in.

It was a strange feeling, driving down the central highway into the normally packed city center. This was a massive, densly populated city, but now most of its population was in bunkers deep below the city streets and in specially hardened subway tunnels nearly as deep to keep them away from the fighting and protected from bombardment should the city's kinetic barriers fail. Thankfully there were not many cars left on the road since most people used the subway systems or walked, so the road was perfectly clear for the convoy as it made its way across the wide bridge to the northern side of the river to begin checking their area for stragglers.

The trucks stopped together as they arrived and the troops of the Liminatei disembarked and spread out by fireteams to begin clearing the area. They were mostly silent at the beginning. This was a drill they had run dozens of time before. By now they could practically do this in their sleep. But as time went on and they saw that there were not likely to be any stragglers, the men inevitably began to talk to try to ease their nerves.

"Optio!" One of the soldiers called out to the leader of their fireteam, Optio Lykandos, a solid man in his mid twenties. He and the ten other optios in the century each let a fireteam of ten men, as well as assisted their centurion in running the century. These men and the officers of the Liminatei were typically men who had already served their mandatory service and had volunteered to stay in reserve to command the others. Lykandos himself was a relatively relaxed leader, though he demanded nothing less than perfect discipline on the battlefield as any leader worth their salt would.

"What is it, Gaige?" Lykandos responded after a moment.

"Do we know what's happening yet?"

"Not yet, only word from command is that that flotilla sent through the Relay failed to report in," Lykandos' helmet looked down for a moment, as if frowning to himself at the situation. "Standard procedure to go to full alert, so here we are."

"All this because a single flotilla failed to report? The whole colony has gone to full alert!" Called another.

"They failed to report after going through an unexplored relay, Naxos! You went to school just like the rest of us, you know what could be out there. Would you rather go to full alert and it be nothing or get caught with your pants down when whatever is out there comes here and decides they want what we have?" The reply from the Optio seemed to quiet everyone as they thought for a moment, before continuing their task in silence again.

 **In orbit:**

Rear Admiral Aaron Shepard couldn't help but feel anxious as he waited with the ships that had managed to make it to Nova Achaia on such short notice. He had been ordered to take command of the ships they had available and hold the line against whatever came through the relay as long as he could if they were hostile, though he had been ordered to only fire if he was fired upon. Frankly however he did not like his odds if an invasion fleet came. There were simply not enough ships to fight a prolonged engagement with such a force.

There was of course the Liminatei's local defense fleet, consisting of the _Phalanx_ Class cruisers _Conqueror_ and _Majestic_ , the two seven hundred and fifty meter long warships consisting of their long central hulls, with stubbier wing-like sections on either side that ran about halfway from the front of the ship and tilted downwards somewhat from the main hull, making it wider at the front than at the back. With two large engines mounted on the center hull, one over the other. These ships were well armed and decently armored. Their main advantage was exceptional maneuverability for a ship their size, and their very strong point defense armament. These types of ships were intended to both destroy smaller capital ships such as destroyers and frigates, as well as provide anti strike craft protection for the fleet's largest ships, forming a phalanx of flak, railgun, and missile fire to cover the fleet. In addition, with their centerline Magnetic Accelerator cannon and four dual turrets mounted two on top and two on the bottom of each of their secondary hulls, they were very capable capital ships, even if they lacked the punch of some other warships.

The Liminatei also fielded two dozen _Trireme_ Class destroyers. These five hundred meter long vessels were lightly armored, very fast and armed with a pair of dual gunned turrets on the top and bottom of their central hulls and a decent point defense armament. However their real power was in their missile armament. If these ships could get close enough to unleash their payload without it being intercepted, their effect would be devastating to ships of all size. Finally, the Liminatei fleet fielded 67 _Velite_ class frigates. These small two hundred and fifty meter long ships would operate in wolf packs to pick off vulnerable ships, and could fly in atmosphere, making them useful support ships when available. Overall, not bad for what it was, ninety four ships was large for a Liminatei's patrol fleet, but a battle fleet it was not.

To back them up, he had the fleet elements of the, 313th, 420th and his own 157th Comitatensis Cohorts. Between them they had three _Praetorian_ Class heavy cruisers. These cruisers were eight hundred meters long and appeared to be the smaller version of the _Germanicus_ in profile, simply without the the secondary lower hull section and three engines, one on each wing and a central engine. They would provide Shepard with his strong core to his fleet with their two heavy spinally mounted magnetic accelerators and twelve total dual turrets mounted with three on each wing and tree on the top and bottom of the central hull, and heavy armor and shielding. They also had their fifteen total _Equite_ Class light carriers. Each were five hundred meters long, lightly armored and armored with a respectable number of strike craft squadrons to support the fleet, though they'd stay out of the firing line. They had brought their ground troops as well as their supplies and could not afford to be lost. These along with the seventy five destroyers, twelve cruisers, and almost three hundred frigates would form the bulk of their fleet, and the primary striking power.

Still, less than five hundred warships, and only one hundred and eight of which were ships of the line to defend an entire system, and at least week before any help came. He did not like those odds. He was going to have to use the orbital defense cannons to give him a portion of the planet's orbit to fall back and regroup in. No, that would leave him boxed in. He would have to use the mobility of his fleet to keep from getting pinned and ground into dust.

Of course there was always the chance that this was nothing more than an accident and he was getting all worked up over nothing, or that whoever was on the other side of the relay was peaceful, but that seemed even more unlikely than the first. He sighed and sat back in his chair at the center of the bridge, deep within the hull of the Heavy Cruiser _Vigilance_. He pinched the bridge of his nose, attempting to ward off the worst headache he had had in all seventy three years of his service. This would either end with a promotion for him and commendations for his unit, or with his becoming an object lesson for future officers.

"Admiral! The relay is activating!" The sensor operator called out from his station to his left. This snapped him out of his thoughts as he quickly looked to the holographic display of the system, watching as first dozens, then hundreds of ships began pouring through the relay. They appeared somewhat similar in basic shape and style to many Imperial ships, though their wings did not seem to have any weapons mounts, and their wings extended farther out on each side. Somewhat like a soaring bird compared to the diving bird of some Imperial warships. "They do not appear to have any ships larger than battlecruiser weight, but they outnumber us five to one admiral!" A slight edge of panic could be heard in the man's voice, but these were professionals, and soldiers of the Empire. They would hold.

"All hands to battle stations. Alert the fleet and get ourselves in between them and the colony!" Shepard commanded, falling into the classic command mentality of a fleet officer. "Tell the Liminatei to pull back to the Colony's orbit to intercept anything they try to get around us to attack the colony. If they want to make landfall, make them earn it. Send a message to Senior Tribune Williams. We are not going to be able to hold them off for long. He needs to finish his preparations and prepare to receive the enemy." At the round of affirmatives Shepard paused for a moment, taking a breath before continuing. "Hail that fleet, let's see if we can't try and stop this before it starts."

"You're connected, Admiral." Reported the communications operator.

"This is Rear Admiral Aaron Shepard of the Terran Empire. Unknown vessels, you have trespassed in Imperial space, identify yourselves and state your purpose here or face war." It wasn't the best that he could have done, but this was a military vessel, not a diplomatic envoy. In any case, Shepard doubted very much that whoever was on those ships could understand his challenge, but he had to try.

The response, while prompt, was completely incomprehensible. It was in a strange language, and seemed to have a strange sort of flanging effect to the voice, but the response certainly did not seem friendly.

As if to confirm his fears; the alien fleet, and he no longer had any doubts that was exactly what it was, began to advance towards his fleet while spreading out in all directions. The much more numerous invaders clearly planned to use their numbers to envelope the smaller defending fleet and hit them from all sides.

"All ships, full reverse. Launch fighters and tell the frigates to hit them on their flanks. Do not allow them to complete that envelopment!"

On receiving their commands the defending fleet sprung into action. They were still well outside of firing range, but like any fleet engagement, more than half the battle was decided before the first shot was fired. The only advantage the Imperial fleet had was its frigates and numbers of fighters and bombers. If they could use the mobility of these ships to forces the enemy fleet to stay in tight formation they could prevent the alien fleet from enveloping the much smaller Imperial fleet so early in the battle, which would spell doom for the defenders.

The aliens responded with what was clearly well drilled precision, moving in unison to tighten their formation again, knowing that if they kept spreading out they would lose too many ships to the Imperial frigates and strike craft. So far however they refrained from launching fighters of their own. Whether that was due to insufficient numbers or some other factor, Aaron could not be certain.

The two fleets continued to maneuver in response to one another, probing defenses and trying to gain an advantage over one another. It looked almost like a strange dance through open space in slow motion, though both side knew that once the fighting began it would become much more intense.

"Fifteen minutes until we are within firing range Admiral." The invading fleet continued to press closer, forcing the Imperial fleet to fall back, drawing ever closer to the system's gas giant. The Imperial fleet deliberately kept falling back until they were passing the gas giant, leaving the Imperial fleet in the higher orbit. This was exactly what Shepard wanted. From the higher orbit, Shepard's fleet had much more room to maneuver. Even with advanced engines and drive cores, the fleet with the "high ground" had more potential energy thanks to the immense gravitational pull of the Gas Giant and thus could fight on their terms and move with much more speed and acceleration. Aaron was baiting his opponent.

"Tell the frigates to pull back towards the fleet with the fighters, let them try to spread out again." As ordered, the frigates rejoined the main formation behind the spearhead of the heavier ships in the fleet. Soon enough the invaders, thinking that the defending fleet was trying to disengage began to try to envelope the defenders to force them to fight. They were right in one sense. Shepard knew he had to disengage sooner rather than later or face the annihilation of his capital ships. Only the frigates would have enough speed to break off in the conventional manner, so Shepard got creative. Once the enemy fleet drew to just outside the range of the Imperial's guns, he made his move.

"All ships full forward and weapons free! Focus fire on enemy light cruisers and frigates and bring us around the planet's orbit." As soon as the order was given, the Imperial fleet surged forward as one. The invaders fleet was spread too thinly to stop them as the fleet rushed down towards the gas giant and straight through the enemy's lines. At the same time, the frigates surged outwards again with the fighters but instead of rushing the center like their larger counterparts, they moved in formations of five to points throughout the net-like formation of the enemy fleet. They took advantage of the thinly spread alien ships to engage individual cruisers and frigates with five of their own, temporarily eliminating the advantage of numbers to destroy the fastest ships in the enemy fleet.

The effect was devastating. In the center, the Imperial destroyers and cruisers were able to eliminate dozens of enemy vessels in the brutal opening barrage. They even managed to break down one of the largest enemy ship's barriers in time for a concentrated missile salvo from a passing destroyer to rip into its hull, shearing one of its wings off and blasting massive breaches throughout the ship's main hull. The vessel listed to the side before seeming to lose control, leaving it dead in the water.

The Imperial ships did not allow themselves to get tied down in a prolonged fight however. They had already lost several ships and could not afford to allow the enemy fleet to close in around them. Instead the defenders continued towards the planet before veering off to the starboard side, using the Gas giant's gravity and already high speeds to slingshot around the planet and way from the hostile fleet before it could turn and pursue. Though they really had no chance to catch up at that point.

Shepard couldn't help but sigh in relief as his crew cheered around him after their small victory. If he was right, they had managed to destroy more than half the light cruisers and frigates of the enemy fleet. This was a coup on Shepard's part, as this allowed him to engage the enemy fleet on his terms only as they no longer had enough fast ships to counter his own. That alone did not even come close to ensuring victory. He knew if he tried to go against the concentrated strength of the enemy's heavy cruisers and destroyer analogues that he would get annihilated, and they certainly wouldn't be so foolish as to be baited again.

"Tactical, what is the status of our fleet, how many did we lose?" Shepard finally asked. They had not come out of this unscathed.

"Admiral, we lost two cruisers, five destroyers and fourteen frigates outright. We have another ten destroyers reporting light to moderate damage, and one more is being evacuated now." Shepard grimaced at that. He had just lost a huge portion of his capital ships in that thirty second engagement. The enemy fleet had reacted immediately to his moves, and the ships that could concentrated fire whatever Imperial vessel was closest. It wasn't surprising really, as his heavy fleet ships had charged the center where the highest concentration of the strongest ships were, but it was a tough loss to swallow none the less. Thankfully they had not lost any of the carriers or heavy cruisers, but it was still too close for comfort.

"Alright, I want the fleet to regroup and be ready to move again in the next ten minutes. The bulk of the enemy fleet is still out there and heading straight for the colony." Shepard began, quickly forcing himself and his crew back into action. "We still have a battle to win people. Alert the captains of the rest of the fleet. I want to hit these guys as they try to land. We will coordinate with the Liminatei. Tell them to hold position in orbit over the City where the orbital defense guns can cover them. When the enemy engages them, we will hit them from behind. With any luck we'll be able to force them to stick within range of those cannons long enough to take out some of their heaviest ships. The longer we can keep them from gaining orbital supremacy, the longer that colony holds out." Affirmatives were given, and the ships of the Comitatensis prepared themselves for the next fight.

 **Castrum I: Nova Achaia**

The command fortress was in a strange state. It was certainly not what one would call chaos, as these were trained crews that had both the advantage of several veterans among them to keep order and an extra hour and a half to prepare thanks to the efforts of the Comitatensis in orbit. On the other hand this was certainly not the disciplined scene one would expect from the other two branches of the Imperial military. No the crews of these fortresses were of the Liminatei, trained well to be sure, but still a far cry from professionals. As such, the crews of these stations were in constant motion, checking and rechecking systems and power levels, the status of the troops deployed outside and any other task they could come up with to keep the tension that was thick enough in the air of the command center to cut with a knife as they waited for the invading fleet to arrive.

Tribune Williams, commander of all the forces on the ground on Nova Achaia and a seasoned veteran officer was at the center of it all, watching the holographic displays that told him the Aliens' progress towards the planet on one side, and the status of the troops on the ground. As it was, he found himself in command not only of the six cohorts of Nova Achaia's Liminatei, but the three cohorts of Comitatenses ground troops that had been deployed by their fleets, giving him forty five thousand troops to work with. It was standard procedure in situations like this for the commander of the Liminatei to take command of the Comitatenis, as while the majority of the borderguards were conscripts, their officer corps were veterans of the professional services and had better knowledge of their home planets. As such, Williams was able to form his plan very quickly.

He knew that the Liminatei were only light infantry without even the benefit of hand-me-down equipment and vehicles that older colonies often procured from Legion and Cimitatensis surplus. Alone, they would never be capable of holding against a large mechanized opponent. If it were not for the handful of fighter and bomber squadrons and the powerful artillery and anti air weapons housed within the five Castra fortresses they would not even be considered worthy of consideration. As it was, Tribune Williams would send his Liminatei outside of the twenty five mile perimeter formed by the five Castras to fight a delaying action in the forests against the invaders supported by artillery from fortresses where possible and as much air support as possible. This would buy as much time as possible for the Comitatenses to dig in. They would take position in the farmlands just outside the perimeter, digging in deep with reinforced trenches, bunkers, anti-tank guns and their own limited armored support all under the cover of the powerful anti air and anti orbital weapons of the Castras. This would force the invaders to attack over open soft ground without air cover to try and take the fortresses to allow their fleets to bombard the defenders from orbit. A tall order to be sure, though not as impossible as he would like.

In any case, it was a solid plan that played to the strengths of what he had under his command. With any luck, it would be enough to hold out until help arrived.

"Tribune, the enemy fleet will be in range of our guns in less than ten minutes!" called a sensor operator from somewhere to his left. This seemed to silence the command center as dozens of faces looked to him in the dark, windowless underground room, lit only by the blue glow of the computers and holograms. This would be where some other commanders would make some inspiring speech to motivate their troops for the battle to come, but Williams had never been one for grand speeches. Regardless, he turned on the force-wide communications.

"Defenders of Nova Achaia; barbarians are at the gates. They have come to wage war upon us. Not once in more than one thousand years has the Empire lost an entire world to an enemy, and we will not start now. We must hold the line now, or face death and disgrace for all eternity. So stand to, and prepare to receive the enemy." It was short, simple and bluntly stated. It would have to do.

Eight minutes later, the alien fleet had continued to close the distance to the colony, apparently unaware of the defenses that lay in wait. Apparently they intended to land directly inside the colony. 'Let's disabuse them of that notion.' He thought to himself as the seconds counted down. "Hold your fire when they enter range, wait for my command."

Above ground, the troops that were still working to get into position looked up to see the enemy fleet's larger transports in the distance. "Shouldn't they have fired already?" Someone asked to Kovak's left. They were in their truck again, driving rapidly towards the forest beyond the fields that fed the colony, though were bare now as winter would be starting soon.

"Focus on your task soldier, the Tribune knows what he is doing." Came the stern reprimand from the centurion.

As if on cue, Kovak looked back towards the one Castra that was still in his line of sight to see its massive _Hadrian_ Class orbital defense cannon lift up from the massive central bunker to point towards the fleet. The monster of a weapon was a thousand meters long with a wide barrel, with the white heavy reinforced concrete of the bunker over the top of it, concealing it when not in use. Faintly he could see it begin to power up as bolts of blue electricity began arcing between the two halves of the massive magnetic accelerator before suddenly...

...It fired.

A massive plume of fire shot out from the front of the gun as its massive projectile was accelerated to such high speed that the air around the gun was ignited in a fantastic display for a split second before a visible shockwave exploded from the gun in all directions picking up dirt and dust as it expanded hundreds of meters every second before washing over the troops at the edge of the forest with enough force to stagger even prepared men and carrying with it the sound as if the hand of a Jupiter himself had hurled a massive bolt of lightning forth to smite his enemies.

Covering his ears as he looked into the sky at the invading fleet he saw this first shot obliterate not one, or even two, but three of the invading ships in a single strike a fraction of a second before the shots from the other four _Hadrians_ hit with similar effect and throwing the several dozen ships into disarray for a few moments before they reformed and began to pull back. Only a few seconds later however, the smaller, but still powerful anti-ship cannons from the fortresses were heard and began pounding the transports as the superheavy guns were retasked apparently to fire at the larger vessels in orbit. The transports he could see were on the retreat, turning around in good order despite the unexpected ferocity of the defensive weapons whose reports were becoming a near constant cacophony of cracks and booms with the occasional shockwave from the _Hadrian_ drowning out all else. Unfortunately for them, they were well within the range of the guns, and took grievous casualties before they made it away. Dozens of ships were either outright destroyed or forced to crash land in the hills and forests ahead, leaving massive gashes in the landscape.

Behind him Kovak could see the machines used by the Comitatenses to do hours worth of digging in minutes tearing through the ground in the fields as prefabricated bunkers were put in place, anti tank guns dragged into place, reinforcement armor plates laid down in the newly dug trenches, and camouflage laid out. The Comitatenses could dig in quickly, but they needed time to finish, and that's what the Liminatei would give them, before falling back themselves to reinforce the lines.

The battle for Nova Achaia had begun, come hell or high water, the Empire would prevail.

 **A/N:**

 **Wow, I have to say I did not expect this kind of interest in my story so early on, or really at all. Thanks so much!**

 **Anyways, sorry this one took so long, I had the worst combination of laziness, papers for school and work the last few days that meant that I just didn't finish the last half of this chapter for much longer than I would have liked.**

 **Thanks again for the reviews! It literally makes my entire day when I see a new one. Bear with me over the next few chapters as I get my writing style down and get everything up to snuff. I'm having a little bit of trouble striking a balance of being as descriptive as I want to be to paint a mental picture for you guys while keeping it from being too difficult to read. I guess my wierd sort of problem is that am used to a very, very high post collegiate reading level and I am not good enough yet to make my own work more reasonable for everyone else. It is probably the wierdest problem I've ever had. I'll work on it.**


	4. Chapter 3

III: The Thunder of Guns

 **Turian LZ-1:**

General Kandros was only barely maintaining the calm facade expected of Turian officers. From the beginning this campaign, which had started as a simple police action against a new species activating dormant relays had quickly turned into the first real battle the Hierarchy had seen since the end of the Krogan rebellions eight hundred years before.

In space, instead of sweeping aside the enemy fleet as planned, they had been outmaneuvered and bloodied badly by these alien's smaller and lighter fleet, whose ships had proven anything but primitive as had been expected. Now they had lost much of their frigate escorts and their fighters simply could not challenge the defenders' much greater numbers. The enemy admiral was taking full advantage of this, striking against any isolated targets and falling back to the cover of those damn orbital defense cannons or simply scattering into the space around the star system. He couldn't chase them down without leaving himself vulnerable somewhere else and as such was stuck maintaining control of as much of the planet's orbit as he could to cover his transports as they landed their ground forces.

Then of course the landing has been a near disaster as well. He had underestimated the flexibility of the defender's gun batteries and lost several transports along with more than four thousand men when the trap had been sprung.

Now though, his troops were finally landing in force. He had tens of thousands on the ground already with more on the way as the beachheads were steadily expanding despite being engaged by light infantry and almost constant artillery barrage. His men were performing exactly as they had been trained, and it was only a matter of time now before he could signal a beginning of the advance towards the upstart's city. His troops would bring those guns down, and after that it would be simply a matter of time before this colony fell.

Despite this, General Kandros could not help but feel nervous. Initial intelligence had claimed that this would be the aliens' homeworld or at least one of its few colonies. Now that he was here though, he could tell that was simply not true. The city below was not even finished in parts, and all of its buildings were pristine as if they had all been built up at once. Further there were many major roads, but no real expansion of settlement yet outside the capital. All signs indicated that this was a new world colonized within the last decade, if these people had the resources and manpower to build up so quickly…

...Kandros shuddered internally at the implication.

This could be the next great galactic war.

 **The Northern Front:**

Kovak ducked behind a tree as a street of bullets flashed by. The invaders were relentless as they fought to expand their beachhead to allow more of their troops to land. The borderguards were doing as well as could be expected. They made the Invaders fight for every step they took on Imperial soil. They fought in small teams all throughout the forest, laying ambushes, calling in artillery strikes and generally skirmishing with the attackers in the forest, inflicting serious casualties all the way. That said, they were still falling back before forces that were quickly proving to be too disciplined and well trained for the lightly equipped defenders to hold for any amount of time.

After catching his breath, Kovak turned around the thick tree trunk and let another burst from his Gladius loose at the enemy squad advancing through the forest just fifty meters from his position. He did not stay to see if his shots hit however as a command came over the comms, only just managing to be heard over the combined roar of the artillery, audible even more than a forty kilometers away, and the constant fire from Imperial troops trading shots with the distinctly higher pitched weapons of the invaders.

"Team One, prepare to fall back in five seconds, Team Two will cover!" came the command from Optio Lykandos who was with the second half of the fireteam twenty meters back atop a small ridgeline.

Exactly five seconds later, the second team opened fire, launching a _Pilum_ shoulder mounted rocket towards the enemy squad. The accelerated high explosive rocket exploded spectacularly against the base of a tree just in front of the enemy, spreading fire and shrapnel along with its considerable shockwave all at once. Several of the strange avian invaders were forced to jump out of the way of the falling tree and all were momentarily stunned by the rocket while the closest to it were badly burned and wounded. Following the explosion the other men of the team fired their carbines and a _Lancea VI_ light machine gun, laying down a brutal fusillade of fire over the heads of Kovak and the rest of the first team to allow the first team to fall back.

Not wasting any time, the five man team fell back at once from their cover, ducking down under their comrades' lines of fire before scrambling up the slope of the ridge and sliding down the other side.

"Everyone down! Artillery incoming!" Lykandos called, urging the rest of the men down the slope just as the forest beyond the ridge erupted in explosions as artillery decimated the enemy squad and likely the rest of its platoon. Thankfully all Kovak and his teammates suffered was a shower of wood splinters and dirt, protected as they were by the berm for the time being. "Everyone lay your mines and fall back, move it!"

This had been the pattern for the entire day's fighting. Engage, skirmish, trade shots, call artillery and fall back. The constant running battle seemed to be serving its purpose. The invading forces were being steadily whittled down as the Liminatei's light infantry beat a fighting retreat towards their own defensive lines while buying time for the Comitatensis to get themselves dug in and their weapons deployed as well as possible. They had hoped they would be able to goad the enemy commanders to over extend themselves and rush into traps, such as the mines Kovak and the rest of the fireteam spread out to lay hidden in the forest to be activated as they left the area, but the invaders were disciplined, and so far the traps were having little effect.

Overhead he could hear the roar of a friendly fighter pass a low altitude followed by the whine of one of the invader's own fighters as it fought to keep Imperial strike craft from attacking the landing zones. He did not have time to consider it however as the team was on the run again, using the artillery to cover them as they got back to their transports finally after having fought over more than fifteen kilometers of forest, and quickly falling back towards the city, allowing others of the Liminatei to continue the delaying action with fresh men.

Hours later as night fell over the battlefield, the invaders had finally pushed almost to the lines of the Comitatensis. First Tribune Williams watched the live feeds in tense anticipation as the last centuries of the Liminatei still in the forests beyond the fields made their dash across the more than five hundred meters of open muddy farmland to the lines of the Comitatensis cohorts.

The Comitatensis had done what they did best. Using specialized entrenching machines and the manpower of fifteen thousand troops to dig in a matter of hours an extensive array of trenches and bunkers stretching between the _Castras_ and reinforced both inside and with armor above their heads to protect against airburst weapons and strikes from above. All along the lines lay _Ballista II_ anti tank cannons and _Scorpion IV_ heavy machineguns all dug in prefabricated pillboxes dug into the ground or camouflaged in bushes and the like as the newly arrived Liminatei spread throughout the trenches to reinforce the thinly stretched Comitatenses. They were as ready as they could be.

They did not have to wait long for the first assaults. The enemy had brought up its heavy armor and had begun their advance. As soon as they left the tree line, the attackers' artillery made its presence known for the first time, Unleashing a furious barrage as their tanks attempted to cross the wide open ground with their supporting armored personnel carriers following behind. The vehicles themselves were clearly very advanced. The attack tanks actually seemed to be based on hovercraft with two massive turbofans on either side along with small stabilizing thrusters allowing them to glide a half meter above the ground and thus making quick progress over the fields, however as they reached their first hundred meters, the defenses opened fire at once.

The effect of the veritable storm of fire was instantaneous. For the tanks in Lieutenant Abrax's platoon, there had been no time to maneuver, and it was immediately clear that the kinetic barriers and relatively light armor of their assault tanks were simply not enough against the aliens' emplaced guns. Abrax and his crew were lucky, relatively speaking. The only took one hit and it over-penetrated, damaging the drive core but flying straight past his crew instead of doing more damage. That said, his tank was well and truly out of the fight except as cover for ground troops.

Their problem was simple enough, their tanks had been designed for the Krogan Rebellions. They were armed to fight the slow cumbersome tanks of the Krogan horde while moving too quickly to get bogged down in a straight fight that they would certainly lose. The Turian armor was paying for it now however, as they found themselves with nothing capable of breaking a heavily entrenched opponent.

Suddenly the lights in the tank's crew compartment came online as their mechanic still worked to try to get them back into the battle.

"Status report," Abrax's voice sounded somewhat shaken by their harsh landing, "What is the status of the rest of the platoon?"

"Wiped out sir," came the report from the gunner's position just behind him. The young gunner was the only one with any sort of view of the battlefield at the moment, as the forward viewport had been buried in the soft soil. "I count two knocked out like us, the other three are either destroyed or burning."

Outside the tank, the gunner saw what could only be described as carnage. all across the fields for as far as the eye could see, tracers and fires from exploded Turian vehicles littered field, the glow from the fires providing the only light for anyone without specialized optics to see by. It was clearly not an issue for the defenders however. He could see the Turians scrambling from destroyed tanks and APCs getting cut down almost instantly by hails of rifle and machinegun fire marked by fiery tracer like glows caused by the sheer velocity at which the rounds were travelling rather than the blue seen in most mass effect weapons.. So far no one had managed to get any closer than they had, and they were still more than two hundred meters away from the first line of trenches, and the only ones still alive were those who were smart enough to play dead, and those hunkering down behind the wrecks of their tanks or hiding in the ditches and craters left by exploding ordinance.

One thing was very clear. This assault was over, stopped cold. This, Abrax realized as the cameras mounted on the hull were brought back online so he could see for himself, was their line in the sand. ' _This far and no further indeed'_ he mused to himself solemnly as he surveyed the carnage outside his very precarious cover. _'This is going to take a lot longer than everyone thought it would.'_

 ** _On the Line:_**

Kovak shouldered his rifle, relaxing somewhat as the gunfire died off for the night. It had been hours since the attack had begun and now thousands of the strange alien bodies lay dead in the fields. They had stopped trying to fall back to the forest. Command had ordered them to hold fire until they had been drawn too far into the open ground to make it back without being cut down by the defenders' guns. Any who remained seemed content to hide behind the wrecks of their wheeled APCs or even sometimes their strange hovering tanks though they were too small to protect more than one or two of them.

Cheers were going up all along the lines now as the men celebrated their first clear victory. For his part however, Kovak and most of the other liminatei just sat down wherever they could, either on the concrete steps they stood on to fire over the top, or even in the already dirty despite having been made only hours ago floors. They had lost a lot of men in the fighting in the forests and hills beyond, his own century alone had eight dead and thirty wounded. He was exhausted, sore, bleeding and simply relieved to have lived as long as he did. He knew, as did everyone else in these trenches that it wasn't over. They were still outnumbered and stretched thin. No doubt the enemy knew this and would be attacking again before long. After all, these aliens were clearly too invested now to turn back from a bloody nose.

"Son of a bitch!" Kovak ducked to avoid a burst of fire from an alien soldier barely seventy meters from his position in the forward trenches. It was the fourth night now of almost constant combat on all fronts. He sat down for a moment against the side of the reinforced trench to try and catch his breath as the cacophony of battle droned on all around him. He could hear men screaming as they were wounded, though those were nearly drowned out by the near constant barrage of artillery from both sides and the reports of the soldiers weapons. He looked down, only to see his hands were shaking. Stims tended to do that.

It was night in the fourth day now of near constant combat. The Turians had been relentless in their attacks, giving the defenders absolutely no time to rest. Command had tried to rotate troops off the line and into the reserve to give them rest, but so far no more than a handful of centuries could be take off the line at a time and that number was dwindling fast as the invaders made yet another assault on the northern front. Now, Kovak and the rest of the century found themselves running on four hours of sleep for the last two days and whatever food they had managed to eat in between firefights. Not to mention they were down thirty men already.

They were holding so far, but now the enemy had brought up portable cover in the form of what appeared to be pieces of ship armor salvaged likely from their downed transports. Further, they had a massive smoke screen up mixed in with flares and chaff to conceal their troops both visually and from thermal sensors. Combined with the cover created by destroyed vehicles and craters from artillery and the enemy infantry was able to get in close enough now to threaten the defenders' positions. If they were stretched much more thinly, it would only be a matter of time before they had to retreat.

Kovak contemplated just running. Trying to maybe get back to the city, and from there maybe hiding in the hills beyond. Really it would only delay the inevitable. They were boxed in on a peninsula with some of the roughest seas he had ever seen beyond, not that there was a boat to begin with. One thing was for sure though, there was no way he could keep this up. He was barely nineteen years old, given a set of cheap armor and a rifle and told to go play war. This was a place for veteran legionnaires. They ate three to one odds for breakfast and asked for more. There was no way he would last.

"On your feet soldier!" Kovak looked up from the blood splattered floor. Standing there was a centurion, not his, he had taken a sniper round to the brain six hours ago. This was one of the Comitatensis. He stood tall in his much heavier _Lorica IV_ battle armor with a scratched gray digital camouflage paintjob and blank visor. He had an arm held out to help him up off the floor, completely heedless of the maelstrom around them. In his peripherals Kovak could see the rest of the comitatenses century streaming into the forward trench from the ones behind. This was one of the last reserves. One raised up the nearby _Scorpion_ , taking the place of the last man who had taken a round to the shoulder, pulled back the charging lever to cycle the heat syncs, and let loose a thunderous barrage. Kovak looked back to the Centurion and nodded to himself before grabbing the offered hand up and standing again with a new burst of strength he had not felt before.

The centurion simply nodded to him before raising his _Spatha V_ assault rifle and taking a place on the firing line Kovak joining him a second later. They both opened fire at different targets, along with the rest of the newly reinforced defenders, laying down a fusillade of fire that, at least in their sector, forced the invaders to fall back under withering fire.

Suddenly they were knocked to the ground as an enemy artillery round smashed through the barriers on the closest pillbox. It was practically vaporized by the ensuing explosion that sent pieces of concrete and metal flying through the air. Not a half second later, the rest of the artillery strike followed, most of the shots missing a direct hit. They forced the already beleaguered defenders to keep down to avoid shrapnel. Thankfully the trenches had been built with cover above them to keep shrapnel from raining down on their heads as long as they kept low. Regardless, it was not enough for the attackers to close the distance. They were losing the cover of their smoke screen and were falling back across no man's land. Men and women stood and began to cheer in a mixture of triumph and relief.

"27th Century! Pick yourselves up, get put back together, and prepare to -" All sound was cut off suddenly as an explosion roared through the air that felt like the planet was coming apart.

Standing up, they all watched in horror as a massive mushroom cloud rose where the nearest _Castra_ stood just moments before. The only thing that would have caused that was the self destruct, which would never have been triggered unless it was about to be taken by the enemy. It was time to leave, there was no holding this line without the fortress. They simply did not have the manpower.

"Everyone _FALL BACK"_ Both centurions bellowed through comms, effectively snapping everyone out of their momentary stupor. all across the line, troops began falling back to their transports or to their nearest standing _Castra_ with any of the equipment they could bring quickly while the Comitatenis' _Gladiator_ IFVs rushed to cover their withdrawal. There was no way to hold this line now and they knew they had to move before the invaders could recover and launch another attack.

Fighters screamed overhead as they mounted a sudden airstrike to cover the retreat of the Imperial forces back to the city itself. Kovak couldn't help but slump into his seat in the truck as they began to pull away from the combat area as fast as they could push the vehicles. Absurdly, all he could think at the moment as he came down off the adrenaline of the fight, was how he would give almost anything for a moment of quiet.

 **Castrum I:**

The command center was in a state of barely controlled chaos as the men and women inside tried to coordinate the withdrawal of all their forces into the cities while simultaneously trying to redirect enough troops to the remaining fortresses so that they could hold out on their own. It was by no means a lost cause. It had taken the enemy's concentrated effort for four straight days to take even one of the massive fortresses. That said, they still needed as many troops as they could fit inside. They were now under siege.

For his part, First Tribune Williams was no more concerned than he was before. He had known that they would never be able to stand off these invaders in the field for long. He was frankly surprised they had held on as long as they had. However now he intended to make his opponent fight a brutal urban campaign. It was clear to him that they would not be able to hold for more than a few more days, let alone the month it would take for a major relief force to be brought out to this far flung colony, but he would be damned if he didn't make his opponent _bleed_ for their victory. One by one the _castra_ would fall, opening the entire orbit to the enemy fleet and spelling the doom of the colony's defenders, but by all the gods of men, Williams assured himself silently, they would _bleed_.

 **[A/N] ALIVE!**

 **I'm so sorry for the delay in getting this chapter out. My computer died on me a few weeks ago and I've had to save money to replace a broken part. Unfortunately this also meant that I lost a good chunk of the reference material that I hadn't gotten around to backing up yet, so I've also had to spend some time reconstructing that from memory. Lessons have been learned.**

 **Anyways, I've got another chapter already in the works, so the delay won't be as bad this time. (Fingers crossed anyways)**

 **This one was going to be longer and include much more of the fighting for Nova Achaia, but it made more sense to break it up when I thought about it. So next chapter will see the battle for the city, as well as the first real appearance of the Legions. If I am estimating right, it will likely be the last chapter of this battle, though not of the whole war.**

 **I've got a pretty detailed outline for the rest of the First Contact War already, but let me know if you want me to draw this out more. As in, more battles, more like an actual war rather than a couple of battles, or if you'd rather the War get wrapped up a little sooner so the story can move on to more things.**

 **Anyways, thanks for reading! As always, let me know if I've missed something in my proofreading.**


End file.
